1474 – Birth-day of Isabella d’Este, Regent in Mantua, (a city in Lombardy, Italy) one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance, a major cultural & political figure. She was a patron of the arts, supporting Raphael, Mantegna, Titian, Leonardo da Vinci, as well as a leader of fashion, whose innovative style of dress was copied throughout Italy & at the French court. She was called: The “liberal & magnanimous Isabella” “supreme among women” “The First Lady of the world”.

1951 –United Nations Security Council Resolution 93, adopted after hearing a report that a “prearranged & planned attack ordered by Israel authorities” was “committed by Israel regular army forces against the Egyptian regular army” in the Gaza Strip on February 28, 1951.

The Council condemned this attack as a violation of the cease-fire previsions of UNSC Resolution 54 & as inconsistent with the obligations of the parties under the General Armistice Agreement between Egypt and Israel & under the United Nations Charter.

The Council again called upon Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent such actions & expressed its conviction that the maintenance of the General Armistice Agreement is threatened by any deliberate violation of it & that no progress towards the return of peace in Palestine can be made until both parties comply strictly with their obligations.

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“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: no pity or wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

But helpless pieces in the game He plays,
Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days,
He hither and thither moves, and checks… and slays,
Then one by one, back in the Closet lays.

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out of the same Door as in I went.

With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour’d it to grow:
And this was all the Harvest that I reap’d—
“I came like Water, and like Wind I go.”

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

And that inverted Bowl we call The Sky,
Whereunder crawling coop’t we live and die,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And answer’d “I Myself am Heav’n and Hell”

The origin of the drama that we call The Working of the Spirit came in the form of an imagination experienced by Marke Levene. This experience occurred to him at the end of decades’ long work with the mystery dramas written and produced by Rudolf Steiner from 1910 through 1914.

When in 2012 after a pralaya (rest) of 17 years Marke made a decision to pursue production of what he had observed and engaged the help of a circle of past and new associates. The emphasis has been since the beginning on producing a work with artistic integrity. Michael Hedley Burton worked with the group to produce drafts of the text of the drama. Over years and in meetings at locations around the world persons of the development group in sometimes heated exchanges honed the imagination and text into a work with artistic merit. Marke and his company of actors felt well enough about the product that they have brought it for the first time to the public in the form of a readers’ theater. The unveiling took place first in Copake, NY. Members in the audience had to react and speak with the cast following the performance and throughout the next day. And now you may be able to join in this first unveiling. Read more here.